* Kansas City blogger retracts post and apologizes to former firefighters’ union chief. (Kansascity.com)
* Huntington Ingalls insists selection of Gannett CFO to board wasn’t meant to influence media coverage of the company. (DailyPress.com)
* Three things news outlets can do to get their emails opened and read. (Charlie Meyerson)
* Google buys travel guide publisher Frommer’s from John Wiley and Sons. (betabeat.com)
* AP’s U.S. Elections Style Guide tells journalists what to avoid in their political stories. (Erik Wemple)
* Why the Huffington Post and Boston.com are getting into streaming media. (NiemanLab.org)

“How often do newsrooms receive the missing man press releases from police?” Ottawa Citizen senior editor Melanie Coulson asks in an email. “And how often does a reporter on assignment actually find the missing man?”
Newsman Zev Singer checked out the police photo of William Dupon at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

Less than an hour later, as I happened to be driving on Ogilvie Road for an unrelated story, I saw a man at the bus stop on the other side of the street wearing a black leather cowboy hat that looked just like the one in the picture of Dupon. I turned the yellow Citizen car around. …

I walked to the bus stop, and, after a moment of comparing, I showed him my Blackberry and asked: “Is this you?”

His eyes widened a bit.

“Yes,” he said.

I told him I was a reporter and explained why I had that picture. To be sure, I asked his name.

“William Dupon,” he said.

Coulson notes that “our readers lapping this up. It is the most-read story and responsible for 6% of all traffic to our site … the number one item, including our Olympics stories.

Longtime Cosmopolitan magazine editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown died today. She was 90. “Her formula for honest and straightforward advice about relationships, career and beauty revolutionized the magazine industry,” says Hearst CEO Frank A. Bennack, Jr. “She lived every day of her life to the fullest and will always be remembered as the quintessential ‘Cosmo girl.’ She will be greatly missed.”

The New York Post reported “exclusively” this morning that CNN “has started seeking out reality-show ideas” and that “in a series of conference calls, the network has been soliciting ideas from the same producers who supply reality shows to channels like Bravo, Discovery and History.”

Here’s what CNN says about that:

CNN, which recently announced the hiring of Anthony Bourdain as a contributor, is continuing to explore other nonfiction original series for the weekend. We routinely pursue new talent and programming concepts within the news category and often shoot pilots for any number of our networks.

Michael McKisson, who runs a website covering Tucson’s cycling community, posted a story and video two months ago about an elementary school installing a bicycle track.

“Yesterday, our local station [KOLD-TV] ran a story about the track and included my footage in their piece,” he tells Romenesko readers. “I was not contacted by the station to use the footage, nor was any credit for the footage provided. They must have done a video screen capture of the YouTube version to be able to add it to their report.

“I have sent an email to the news director with an invoice attached for the use of the video footage. I billed them $300. I figured a decent rate was $100 per hour and I worked at least 3 hours shooting, editing and posting the video.

“I have yet to hear back from the news director.” UPDATE: “The news director has responded and said they are looking into it,” reports McKisson.

The Florida reporter who wrote on his Facebook page that “the level of hatred, unfounded fear and misinformed people [who showed up at Chick-fil-A on “Appreciation Day”] was astoundingly sad” has resigned from his paper, I’ve confirmed.

After his post was shared nearly 100 times, Fort Myers News-Press reporter Mark Krzos pulled the rant and left Facebook. His editor, Terry Eberle, told News-Press and Romenesko readers that the post was “completely inappropriate” and that “we will take strong and appropriate action.”

“Today was my last day,” Kari Dequine Harden writes in an email sent late Sunday. “Gonna try to move forward and find something to believe in again. Not that he gives a rat’s ass, but I decided I would let Steve Newhouse know my reasons for an early departure.”